noirish Los Angeles

[GaylordWilshire]

Um...I think they are indeed appreciated for their style. Long may Dingbats live. As Reyner Banham pointed out, they were just a few steps removed from the lines and materials that Rudolph Schindler introduced to LA.... The entire history of the city--and much of its appeal--has been one of extreme architectural variety.


So interesting that a tenant kept you in mind, CBD, along with Qiana--that long-lost Dingbat-contemporaneous fabric. Wonder why he would call a whole year later? Do you supposed he'd been picturing you in a teddie or bullet bra? Seems quite noirish, really....

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

I lived in one in Ocean Park during college in the 70's...a hideous grey stucco box with aluminum window frames...didn't even occur to me then that it had replaced a couple of lovely old houses. Nearby at the top of the hill on 4th Street, was a wonderful big circa 1905 Mission-style house with an elaborate tower and huge Canary Palms - it too was demolished in the early 70's and replaced with a ghastly large dingbat.

I'm always fascinated when it's suggested that these "lovely old houses"--like the 1905 Mission-style you mention--should have been preserved for posterity. At whose expense? I never see the lamenters rushing out to buy them and maintain them. Is there some sort of moral imperative to preserve our fantasies of a supposedly better past that I'm missing?

[John Maddox Roberts]

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

Agreed, Doug.
Someone can say that ANYTHING, no matter how ugly and tacky, is "appreciated and recognized" if a few people get a kick out of it. Look at most contemporary "art." Dingbats are an absolute blight on the landscape - and apologies to those here who live in one out of necessity. I lived in one in Ocean Park during college in the 70's...a hideous grey stucco box with aluminum window frames...didn't even occur to me then that it had replaced a couple of lovely old houses. Nearby at the top of the hill on 4th Street, was a wonderful big circa 1905 Mission-style house with an elaborate tower and huge Canary Palms - it too was demolished in the early 70's and replaced with a ghastly large dingbat.

"Politicians, whores and ugly buildings all get respectable if they last long enough."
Lucas Cross

[GaylordWilshire]

Yes indeed! In (Noah) Cross's own words...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYqoGNjG4m8

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

So interesting that a tenant kept you in mind, CBD, along with Qiana--that long-lost Dingbat-contemporaneous fabric. Wonder why he would call a whole year later? Do you supposed he'd been picturing you in a teddie or bullet bra? Seems quite noirish, really....

When the old tenant called and said his name, I had no idea who it was.

He had to remind me, he was one of my former tenants.

[Lorendoc]

An upcoming event of interest:

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

Someone can say that ANYTHING, no matter how ugly and tacky, is "appreciated and recognized"

Maybe you can appreciate and recognize them as social documents. On that score, they're no different than adobes, Victorians, bungalows or any of the other successive residential waves which have washed over us. Dingbats, in their time, did a good job of absorbing a lot of new Angelenos. They inspire none of the horror in me that I feel when contemplating a ginormous Geoff Palmer "Italianate" complex.

(I'm too claustrophobic to live in a big building anyway. I like an outside door that empties to the street.)

There's five dingbats coming down on a single block near here, to be replaced with two four-story monsters (although that's not even approaching the scale of a Geoff Palmer building).

LOL. Dingbats. We'll miss 'em when they're gone.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by Lorendoc

An upcoming event of interest:

That little converted garage is still there:


gsv 600 Shields Dr San Pedro

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

That little converted garage is still there:
600 Shields Dr San Pedro

Wow there's even upgrades to the old home-sweet-home.....be it ever so humble.

Paint, jumbo size mailbox, security door, painted porch floor/step + kid's toys, porch light, welcome mat, satellite dish[s], window treatment..... Did I forget anything?


Before it was si terne...now its a real hacienda con bella casa.....si adorable.


https://cdn.dribbble.com/users/50661...sweet-home.jpg

[tovangar2]

Plus, it comes with a nice piece of land and an amazing view. It's part of that little neighborhood remnant caught between the 110 and Smith Island. Quite the spot.

(too bad the front got stuccoed and the window replaced)

[CityBoyDoug]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

Plus, it comes with a nice piece of land and an amazing view. It's part of that little neighborhood remnant caught between the 110 and Smith Island. Quite the spot.

(too bad the front got stuccoed and the window replaced)

gsv

Evidently there is another more grande schloss associated with our subject abode.
While driving around in the GMobile I noticed that the neighborhood was jam packed with children's toys.
Even the featured domicile is displaying a child's plastic slide and swing on the entry terrace.

[tovangar2]

Originally Posted by CityBoyDoug

Evidently there is another more grande schloss associated with our subject abode.

Yep, it's the converted garage, like I said.

I bet they have great block parties 'round there.

[Tourmaline]

June 1962, 2100 block, N Broadway

http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...0coll2/id/7637




Red's Cocktails signage at 2110 N Broadway, was anything but low key.

A natural fit?



http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...0coll2/id/7637

[Earl Boebert]

The combination of that sign, the fins on that Plymouth, and the guy in the t-shirt is classic. I wonder if he has his cig pack rolled up in his sleeve like we used to do.

Cheers,

Earl

[GaylordWilshire]

Where's there's a bar, there's noir....



LAT March 10, 1957




Red's and the old bank building it's in are gone, but the big brick building beyond it, and apparently the smaller one next to it, are still there....



But what really caught my eye was another bank building up the street...



GSV



Seems noir goes with banks almost as much as it does with bars...



LAT March 18, 1933



GSV

[John Maddox Roberts]

They fought in a phone booth? That's what you might call close-quarters combat.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Yes indeed! In (Noah) Cross's own words...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYqoGNjG4m8

Noah Cross: I hope you don't mind. I believe they should be served with the head.

Jake Gittes: Fine... long as you don't serve the chicken that way.

[AlvaroLegido]

Originally Posted by tovangar2

[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/poOmi6SRj]

dopplehouse

The divergent estimates on the dingbats buildings made me think of the same phenomenon regarding popular music for about the same time periods. The late 1950s and early 1960s rock, doowop, surf, etc. (sorry unihikid...) was felt by learned musicians as a big decline comparatively with the golden era of the 1930s. But now, if they compare it to the mash sound of the current popular music, they hear cool and musical sounds and enjoy it. The same for those late 1950s/early 1960s dingbats : they have various, human, friendly proportions (two storeys) and quality materials compared to current buildings but... they couldn't know it at the time. In France, the worst period (still irreconcilable) are the 1970s.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

I tried to find out if Mr. Costello was at the canteen on Thanksgiving 1944.

During my search I came across this photograph of Abbot and Costello performing at the opening the of Hollywood Canteen on Oct. 3rd, 1942.


margaret herrick library


By sheer coincidence, the man in the doorway wearing the apron might be the man I thought was Mr. Costello
in the Thanksgiving photo.


this guy


The apron makes me think he could be a manager/employee at the canteen.

(& that would help explain why he's in both photos two years apart )


_

the guy in the apron looks like Jack Larue.

[MichaelRyerson]

Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire

Hamilton Burger on the wrong side of the law...at Wrigley Field in Armored Car Robbery (1950)

I'll leave it to someone else to identify the location where the '39 Dodge careens around a corner and winds up at the mouth of a tunnel...

Easily the clearest, best image of Hill Street PE tunnel no. 2 I've seen.

[Tourmaline]

June 1962 - Where Vallejo Street and S. Ave 21 met.

The source describes the subject property as vacant, dilapidated and "[an] old Victorian in decay," implying that the impending demolition was understandable. (http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...0coll2/id/7643 ) The Victorian's replacement appears to be a remarkably uninspired/insipid rectangular structure of the genus dingbat. (See below) The multi-family structure to the left (2108 Vallejo Street) was reportedly built in 1897 and seems to have weathered the demolition storm. One assumes that if the date is accurate, the appurtenant structures would have been designed to house carriages of the horse drawn variety.




http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/single...0coll2/id/7643


https://www.google.com/maps/place/S+....2175005?hl=en

2108 Vallejo St.
https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api...FH9Ngub8lJoZc=


2108 Vallejo Street
https://images1.apartments.com/i2/S-...mary-photo.jpg